Environmental Sustainability

Environmental Sustainability

Solar power at Valley Supply

In September 2015, Valley Supply installed solar panels at the Woodinville store. NW Wind and Solar says that it was the largest privately purchased system that they’d sold in Snohomish County. To owner Jeff Taylor, it came down to a few things – are we here for the long haul? Is it going to be good for our bottom line in the long run? Is it going to be good for our community? The answer to all these questions was a big YES.

“My sister and I own the building and felt that it was a wise financial decision that will ultimately increase the value of the building and provide a stable cost of electricity for Valley Supply” says Jeff. “This is another way that we can be leaders. We feel our level of service is extraordinarily high and we want to also be extraordinary community members. It needed to pencil out too.”

The system is large enough to produce excess power in some months of the year that is sold back and used by others. You can’t easily see these panels from below, but it’s an impressive 7315 kW solar energy system.

Valley Supply’s Charging Station

Valley Supply installed electric car charging stations at the Woodinville, Silverdale and Puyallup stores. One of the newer cars in the Valley Supply fleet is a Nissan Leaf, driven by General Manager Jerry Masters. “I love that I haven’t been to a gas station in 4 years. I drive a lot and wanted to reduce my carbon emissions. This Leaf also made economic sense for us and has been much less expensive to operate than a traditional vehicle,” says Jerry.

Valley Supply owner Jeff Taylor agrees that reducing the company’s carbon emissions is a trend that he supports. “We look for ways to keep costs down and also keep the environment in mind. The charging stations are an easy thing we can do for the community.”

Charging stations are in the Plugshare program and are available for anyone to use for free.

Here’s Jerry’s tucked in the corner of the Woodinville store parking lot at the charging station. If you want to use the charger while his Leaf is there, just pop in the store and ask.

Partnering with Forterra

Valley Supply is proud to be partnering with Forterra’s Evergreen Carbon Capture program. 320 native evergreen trees were planted to account for the carbon emitted by Valley Supply operations, that’s one tree for every 5 tons of carbon that our company emitted in 2016. We think it’s a great investment in our local community.